Article carriers are often used in fruit graders to transport fruit through various measurement stages for grading purposes and to eject fruit at a required location dependent on the result of the grading process. Such article carriers usually include an endless circuit of carriers or cups on a conveyor chain with the cups situated to unload fruit at one of a plurality of stations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,132 (Maier) describes a carriage for goods that is provided with a tilting device that is fastened to a carriage frame and is equipped with a push rod which is used to tilt a transporting tray disposed on a horizontal shaft. The tray can be tilted in either direction. The carriage includes a large number of components and the push rod necessarily travels with the carriage, increasing the complexity and cost of the carriage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,807 (Leverett) describes a cup that is freely pivotable at one end about a tow bar. The cup is supported in a horizontal position by a pin that rides on an upper camming surface that includes drop spaces. Bridge struts allow the cup to ride over the drop spaces. The cup can only discharge articles in one direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,394 (Blanc) describes a two roller carriage that can tilt in one direction. The carriages include a lug that slide on a cam, causing lateral tilting of the carriage for article discharge.
The article carrier described in international publication no. WO 94/14547 (Horticultural Automation Limited) allows unloading to both sides of a conveyor, allowing increased unloading points for a given length of conveyor over a carrier that ejects to one side only. The contents of the carriers are also substantially shifted sideways rather than being “kicked” or dropped, which may result in improvements in fruit quality.
While carriers of the type described in WO 94/14547 have been successfully used for article carriage and ejection, some inaccuracies have been found to occur, which increase the reject volumes and product recycling. Furthermore, particular fruit sizes and shapes can introduce instability to the carrier. In particular if large misshapen fruit is carried by the carrier in a position that creates an off-centre load, it is possible that the opposite side of the carrier to the centre of gravity of the load may be lifted, resulting in some lateral movement of the carrier in the direction of the off-centre load, which increases the instability and may result in spontaneous tipping of the carrier.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an article carrier that has advantages over article carriers at present, or at least to provide the public with a useful alternative.
Any reference in this specification to the prior art does not constitute an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge.